Skate 2™

In Skate 2 San Vanelona is nothing like you remembered. It's been five long years since your mysterious disappearance from the skate scene, and much has changed in the wake of "the disaster-too-gnarly-to-be-named." After a mass evacuation, Mongocorp rebuilt the city but their zealous protection of private property has put a dampener on the once thriving skate population. Your mission is to rebuild your career and revive the New San Vanelona skate scene. You have to take back the city... one spot at a time.

Flaunt your style like never before. Shred the streets of New San Vanelona with double your bag of tricks and show off your skills with the all-new skate.Reel. Or personalise a challenge by moving in-world objects to create your own spots which can then be uploaded, shared and experienced by others around the world.

Skate 2 ups the ante in delivering all the grit, creativity and culture of skateboarding by letting you skate it your way - both on and off the board.

Explore a new look and feel to San Vanelona and make it a skaters' paradise

Perform twice the number of tricks seen in the first game, with inverts, one-foots, hippy jumps, finger flips and much more

Create your own skater with a massive array of options, and make your own spots with around 100 different types of moveable objects

Skate or die

Skate 2 is the most authentic simulation of standing on a plank of wood to date.

When Skate ollied onto PlayStation 3 in 2007, it introduced a new level of realism to skateboarding games. Its sequel, Skate 2, continues in the same vein, albeit with a bigger city, updated modes and a new array of tricks to master as you tear up San Vanelona.

The first thing to do at the start of the game is design your character, who has just been released from prison to find that the city - rebuilt after an earthquake - has fallen foul of a security company intent on destroying the skating community. There are plenty of customisation options at your fingertips and a comprehensive wardrobe of clothing from well-known brands. Once you're happy with your character, he or she is ready to jump on their board.

The control scheme is similar to that of Skate; the left stick controls general movement and the right stick performs ollies, nollies and flip tricks depending on which direction you push it. The L2 and R2 buttons control your left and right arms respectively, allowing for grab tricks. One of Skate 2's enhancements is that it allows you to direct your feet using the Square and X buttons, be it to push off the ground for speed or to add variation to your grinds and lip tricks, and pressing them together while skating makes your character jump off the board while it carries on rolling beneath them.

You can also jump off completely with a press of the Triangle button, allowing you to explore San Vanelona on foot. This is especially useful for climbing stairs to reach hidden ramps or moving objects around to create the perfect spot - another new feature. If you think you've built skating Utopia, you can upload it to Create-a-Spot mode for others to download and even keep track of scores set by the community.

Career mode is where the bulk of the gameplay can be found and it follows the story of your character trying to resurrect the skating scene in the face of aggressive security guards. After the first few missions introduce the basic controls and new features, you're free to explore the city and take on assignments in whichever order you choose, either by skating to certain locations or using your mobile phone to issue challenges to pros. There's a wide range of missions keeping things varied, such as races, street contests, vert contests and one-off tricks and stunts, and you can call your prison contacts to help you shake off security or free up skating spots that have been blocked off.

The Hall of Meat is another feature that has been updated. As you're attempting to get more air and nail more difficult tricks, you're bound to spend a lot of time falling off, so bailing has been transformed into a great mini-game. If you sense things going badly, you can press the L2, R2, L3 and R3 buttons simultaneously to jump off. From here, you can alter your body shape as you hurtle along the tarmac and are awarded bonus points for breaking bones, crashing into cars and generally causing yourself harm. And thanks to the superb animation, some crashes will make you wince.

At any stage in career mode you can press the SELECT button to go to the online menu. From here you can freeskate with other players, take them on in a match, view created spots and videos, and check out the profiles of your friends. The match types mirror those you encounter in single player, such as Deathrace and Hall of Meat, and there are even co-operative challenges, such as achieving groups score totals, for you to attempt with friends.

Skate 2 does exactly what a sequel should; it builds on the original without compromising the core elements that made it good in the first place. Fans of the original will love the flexibility afforded by the new move set and bigger city, while newcomers will be grinding and finger-flipping in no time.